When All Seems Lost

Legion #7

by William C. Dietz

From the NATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR of When Duty Calls .

Captured by the alien Ramanthians, diplomat Christine Vanderveen must protect the Confederacy's President from both their captors and fellow prisoners. But rescue is on the way, led by Lieutenant Tonio Sanchez, Vanderveen's former lover, who must try to set aside his personal feelings for the sake of the mission.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Military Fiction, Space Opera, Science Fiction Fantasy, Military Science Fiction, Fantasy

352 pages, Hardcover

First published October 2, 2007

About the author

New York Times bestselling author William C. Dietz has published more than fifty novels, some of which have been translated into German, Russian, and Japanese. He grew up in the Seattle area, served as a medic with the Navy and Marine Corps, graduated from the University of Washington, and has been employed as a surgical technician, college instructor, and television news writer, director and producer. Before becoming a full-time writer Dietz was director of public relations and marketing for an international telephone company. He and his wife live near Gig Harbor, Washington.

Reviews

[Mike Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dietz is always a great read. This one was hard to put down.

[Daniel McGill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Have you ever wondered what would happen if the Dirty Dozen pulled the Great Raid on the Bridge Over the River Kwai while mounted on Foreign Legion cyborgs more then eight hundred years in the future? No? Well what's wrong with you? I wonder about that kind of thing all the time. Well for those of us with some creatively imaginative curiosity William C. Dietz finally puts forward a cogent and detailed hypothesis on this scenario.

William C. Dietz is an excellent author of military action / political thriller science fiction and this book doesn't disappoint in that regard. Captain Antonio Santana and foreign service officer Christine Vanderveen are again the central characters of this 7th installment of the Legion of the Damned series. As the Ramanthian war continues Vanderveen is captured alongside the confederacy president and must endure harsh treatment and slave labor in a POW camp reminiscent of WWII Japanese camps long enough to be rescued in a covert operation lead by Santana while protecting the identity of the president from their captors and sabotaging the space elevator they're being forced to build. The insect like Ramanthians take on a lot of WWII era Japanese characteristics in this novel in support of the historical metaphor. Meanwhile General Bill Booly and the Chien-Chus must battle the power hungry Vice president to make sure the mission happens at all. Politicians and soldiers do battle with aliens, cyborgs and each other, there are torrid affairs, brutal battles, morally ambiguous scenarios, heroic sacrifices, coherent light is burped and almost everyone dies. All this along side some interesting sci-fi concepts the most important of which in this book is the space elevator and all it's wondrous potential for both economics and disaster. So a typically good read from Dietz.

[Fred Hughes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series never seems to last long as you are reading along, oblivious to time passing, and then you are done.

Well drawn out and compelling characters plus a story arc that grabs your attention are the hallmarks of all the books in the "Legion of the Damned" series by William C. Dietz.

As a military science fiction genre there is always the chaffing between the political masters and the military whose honor requires them to obey sometimes obtuse objectives within unrealistic deadlines.

And then there are the battles, both in space and planet side, where the cunning enemy is taken down by an even more cunning and dedicated military.

In this book the main story revolves around the fact that the enemy has unknowingly captured the President of the confederacy and don't know it.

The Vice President sees this as a golden opportunity to assume control while trying to stymie the military's desire to rescue the President before his identity is given away. This is where the politicians really shine in their own cunning.

READ the book and then GET THE ENTIRE SERIES

[Tasula · Rating 5 out of 5]

probably modeled on Bataan death march- excellent part of the Legion of the Damned SF military series- great characters and action

[Chris The Lizard from Planet X · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the seventh book of the Willam Dietz’s Legion series. The interstellar war with the ruthless Ramanthians remains heated as the vicious insectoid race fights to the death with no rules except to win. They physically overwhelm their opponents on the battlefield by accepting mass deaths on their side in order to subjugate as slaves any survivors of their pandemic slaughter. The Ramanthians are unaware they captured President Marcott Nankool, the head of their strongest adversary, Confederacy of Sentient Beings. They send him to a labor camp where the POWs slave until they wish to die before they become food for the billions of hatchlings. One of Nankool's incarcerated aids, human diplomat Christine Vanderveen knows that any one of his loyal supporters could give away the president's identity in exchange for better conditions, which means death. She will kill anyone who might betray the president. Ambitious Vice President Leo Jakov orders the military to do nothing as he insists Nankool is dead and he is the president. However, Legion General William Booly ignores the unimpressive buffoon and assigns Captain Antonio Santana to lead a volunteer suicidal rescue mission that Tonio accepts because his beloved Christine is one of the prisoners. William Dietz is known for his action-packed graphic military science fiction thrillers This entry into the Legion of the Damned series is all that, but much more as the author uses the conflict to enable fans to look deeply inside the various cultures. As expected, the Ramanthians are the most interesting as their society accepts the loss of millions in combat. The human and other alien prisoners form a prisoner group that initially bands around keeping Nankool safe; but becoming hatchery food makes everyone reconsider. The military and the politicians also have contrasting subgroups, as the politicos are self serving while the military are heroic. Overall, Mr. Dietz's legions of fans will appreciate WHEN ALL SEEMS LOST as a great read for any fan of Military sci-fi.

[Chan Fry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I happened to pick this up not realizing it was the seventh installment in a long-running series. Therefore I was lost through most of it; the author wrote it assuming I’d read all the others. This one convinced me that all books part of a series should be required to say so, right on the front cover: “This is the 7th book in [X] series.” Other things that bugged me: instead of feeling fear or dismay, the characters always felt something physical in their stomachs, which was just weird. And sentence fragments. (See what I did there?) Entire paragraphs in this book. Are constructed of. Sentence fragments. Reading difficulty. (I wrote a longer review in 2010 when I read this.)

[Douglas Pearson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good conquers evil

A simple morality take set in a future military setting could have been set in any America's wars of the past century. Teenagers ( male) will love it.

[Downey Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the original series as they came out; decided to reread the series and it still does not disappoint. Very enjoyable.

[Francis Gahren · Rating 4 out of 5]

The seventh Legion of the Damned novel (after 2004's For Those Who Fell) continues the unapologetically brutal military SF saga with a pedal-to-the-metal plot jam-packed with intrigue, deep space adventure and futuristic combat.

With an interstellar war looming, Marcott Nankool, the president and CEO of the Confederacy of Sentient Beings, and his entourage (including Christine Vanderveen) are captured by the Ramanthians, a ruthless insectoid race bent on nothing short of complete dominion over all other intelligent species. Keeping their identities a secret, the POWs are shipped to a labor camp on a remote jungle planet about to become the hatching ground for billions of newborn (and ravenous) Ramanthians.

Against the orders of the ambitious and unethical vice president, Legion Gen. William Booly and Capt. Antonio Santana mount an all but impossible rescue mission. Blending hardcore military fiction with elements of sociological science fiction à la Alan Dean Foster's Commonwealth saga, this adrenaline-fueled Clancyesque adventure is Dietz in top form.

Dietz’ novel shows similarities between the Ramanthian code of spiritual warfare (no surrender) and the Japanese samurai/bushido code of WWII. Additionally, Captain Santana’s raid on Camp Enterprise resembles the Ranger raid on the Japanese POW camp in Cabanatuan, Philippines, on 28 January 1945 led by Lt. Col. Henry Mucci and Captain Prince.

Chapter Quotes

“Surprise, the pith and marrow of war.”
-Admiral of the Fleet Lord Fisher, 1906

“A brave captain is a root, out of which, as branches, the courage of his soldiers doth spring.”
-Sir Philip Sidney, 1580

“Blood is the price of victory.”
-Von Clausewitz, “On War”, 1832

“Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
-Lord Acton, 1887

“There are times when men have to die.”
-Henry Stimson, Secretary of War, 1941


Review #2

Several pages into this sci-fi military adventure, I found myself comparing the plot two of my favorite war movies; The Bridge on the River Kwai, and the recently made, The Great Raid. Elements from both are borrowed in this tale of futuristic warfare, heroism and self-sacrifice. The book is part of a series labeled The Legion of the Damned, but none of the previous chapters are needed to appreciate and enjoy this one.

In this future, mankind is part of union known as the Confederacy of Sentient Beings and is at war with a bug-like race known as the Ramanthians. Good sci-fi military books require traditional set pieces to be effective, among these are large scale outer space battles. When All Seems Lost opens with a dandy. The Ramanthians have managed to deploy an ambush around a known hyper-space exit point and when Confederacy warships begin appearing, they brutally decimate them one after the other. Aboard the flagship of this doomed fleet is none other than the President of the Confederacy and as his ship comes under fire, it looks like he will either be killed or captured by bugs; the latter course much more damaging to the Confederacy. As a high level prisoner, the President could be used by the enemy to extort certain concessions from the administration, concessions that would prove extremely harmful to the war effort.

Then, at the last minute, a savvy diplomatic assistant suggest disguising the President's identity from their captors. This would allow him to go undetected among the other POWs until a hopeful rescue mission could be launched. The President agrees to the subterfuge and orders the captain of the ship to surrender. Thus begins the ordeal of the Confederate survivors. They soon find themselves on a harsh, hot and humid jungle planet and put to work aiding the Ramanthians in building a space elevator. Which is where the similarities to the Bridge on the River Kwai come into play.

[Steven Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable read. I have always liked Dietz's books of the Legion of the Damned. I did feel some of the characters got a short thrift and died far too conveniently such as SGT Gomez and the cyborg Snyder. Perhaps the publisher was attempting to keep page count to an arbitrary number. Despite my grumblings of the character's death, I enjoyed the book. I am looking forward to reading more the Legion of the Damned.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A slow start but soon spins out of control in a good way. Captain Santana and General Booly battle corrupt Confederacy politicians and the Ramanthian Empire to liberate diplomats and military personnel from a prison planet.

[Mark Baller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book looking for the rest of the series now

[Keira F. Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the weaker books in the Legion of the Damned series. Based very loosely off of the bataan death march and the later rescue of the troops.

[Kevin Shockey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very fun read.

[Kip · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great!